Retro Terminal
July 14, 2026 12:30 pm #web#project
Retro Terminal
Visual description
A square graphic with a near-black background textured with faint horizontal scanlines and slightly phosphor glow in the middle, evoking an old CRT monitor. Centered in the middle, two lines of blocky, pixelated amber-orange text read 'Retro' on the first line and 'Terminal' on the second, in a monospace-style font that matches the terminal aesthetic.
From custom CMS to Grav CMS, my web building days are over!
I spent many years building custom websites and CMS platforms, but eventually got tired of the ongoing updates and maintenance. After using WordPress and many other popular database-driven CMS platforms, I grew to dislike them, so I went looking for a better alternative.
Flat-file CMS turned out to be the perfect fit. After trying several options, I started with Grav CMS 1.x and Automad for a while before fully committing to Grav CMS 2.0 when it was released recently. It is a fast, flat-file content management system and template engine that requires no database. Instead of maintaining a custom CMS, I now focus my time on designing themes using Tailwind CSS, a utility-first stylesheet framework for building layouts in code or markup.
It took me four days to design and build my first grav-compatible theme, Retro Terminal, and I had a lot of fun doing it. Now that it is done, I am focused on adding new content and migrating my past posts over. Less hassle, more time for content.
For a full list of tools and resources I use to build my personal websites, visit my Web Projects page.